The study was based on the Survey of Consumer Finances, 1973, and on field studies carried out by Marga Institute for USAID in 1978. The study begins with a brief introduction to the country’s economy and its development, which have a bearing on the present pattern of incomes and economic activities. The analysis of poverty is carried out not in terms of individual incomes, but in terms of households, bearing in mind the per capita availability of resources to meet the daily needs of the households. The study also portrays poverty in a number of specific situations, namely, in five villages and in a community of people living and working in a tea plantation. The analysis of this study is based on the socio-economic conditions prevailing in 1973.